The Mountain I Climb
by Chrissiemusa
Summary: "It was better for her to leave this way, without them knowing the real truth, then for them to find out and be put in danger themselves." Constance faces her greatest challenge... leaving Cackle's Academy.


**AN: My second attempt at writing a songfic :) another shout out goes to Princess Sammi for her advice and guidance *offers a basket full of different gifts* next chapter to Golden Dewdrop has hit a snag but I hope to overcome this as soon as the uni assignments slow down.**

**I do not own The Worst Witch or the song One More. They belong to Jill Murphy and Superchick respectively. The song lyrics have been edited slightly to avoid too much repetition.**

**All errors are mine**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

><p><strong>The Mountain I Climb<strong>

_**It feels like I have lost this fight**_

There were days when Constance Hardbroom felt the burdens of the world on her shoulders more than others. Today was one of those days. She sat inside her safe haven, the potion laboratory, at the stroke of midnight and contemplated the letter she held between her thin and frozen fingers. The castle was notoriously cold during the winter months and while the girls were upstairs sleeping soundly in their beds, trying to keep as warm as possible, they had no idea that larger forces were at play or that when they awoke their position mistress would be gone.

She had thought about leaving the academy once before but, her ever so faithful students, decided to fight for her to stay. In the end she did but this time things weren't so easy. Her past had finally caught up with her and there was no point in bringing anyone else into her mess.

Taking the quill in her hand she signed the bass of the letter, carefully inscribing her signature before folding the parchment and placing it into an envelope. 'Amelia' scrawled across the top. She then stood to her feet, crossed her arms and disappeared.

_**They think that I am staying down**_

Placing the letter on Miss Cackle's desk Constance wondered what they would think of her decision. Would they think that she was weak, would they cheer with excitement at the prospect of their potion mistress disappearing off the face of the earth one day and never returning. Would they remember her at all during their final years of school before graduation?

She supposed that many would think that she was a coward, not facing any of the staff or students to announce her decision publically but she had her own reasons. It was better for her to leave this way, without them knowing the real truth, then for them to find out and be put in danger themselves.

_**But I'm not giving up tonight**_

No, Constance Hardbroom was not giving up, although it may have looked like that from the outside of her armour covered facade. In fact it was entirely the opposite. Carefully she removed the school keys from around her waist and placed them delicately onto the wooden table where they clinked and chimed quietly before looking out of the window at the snow gracefully falling from heaven. She needed to do this, it was the only way.

_**Tonight the wall is coming down**_

Wiping the ghost of a tear from her pale complexion and feeling the chill of her fingers touching her flesh she marched to the door and opened it, taking one last look at the headmistresses name inscribed on the plaque before walking down the hall; her boots clicking as she went, echoing softly against the ground as she took a look around the school one last time.

The hall where she had supervised countless assemblies and dinners, the staff room where idle chit chat and other staff shenanigans came into play. She would remember them all and wished that she could stay. But, it was already too late; she had reached the front doors.

_**I am stronger than my fears**_

Taking a deep breath she placed her hands on the locks, removed the wooden blockade and stepped into the snow, closing the door behind her with a flick of her magic and looking to the full moon shining over head. It gave the snowflakes a luminous white glow. If she had her sketch pad from her room and a pencil she might have tried to capture this beauty to add with the other drawings she had scribbled during the midnight hours when sleep played hide and seek.

But now was not the time to reminisce at the castle's strong brick outlay or the beauty of nature, for it was a human being she had to meet tonight and one that never understood the meaning of beauty.

She left her broom in the shed, her witches' hat in her room and Morgana curled up on her pillow. The only thing she had was her magic, her straightened black dress and her customary boots; the boots that she now used to trudge through the snow, aiming to her destination.

_**This is the mountain that I climb**_

_**Got 100 steps to go**_

_**Tonight I'll make it 99**_

Step after step Constance walked through the forest, midnight owls hooted and howled to her right and left but nothing stopped her from continuing down her path. She forcefully stopped herself from turning to look back, to stop the nostalgia that threatened to take hold. Being out so late, alone, reminded her all too well of when she first arrived at the academy that cold and rain swept night.

_**One more,**_

_**Go one more,**_

_**Yeah, yeah, **_

_**Don't stop now**_

She was nothing but a stranger then, someone with a name and nothing more but Miss Cackle had put her up, given her a place to stay, an education to finish her Higher Witch Certificate and an offering of a job to teach the girls.

_**Go one more,**_

_**Go one more,**_

_**Go one more**_

But she had to push all of that behind her, stop thinking about Amelia, Davina, Imogen or the students. She had to stop thinking about them because all it did was bring more tears to her eyes. She had to leave them all now. They wouldn't understand why and would probably try to find her.

_**I have everything to lose by not getting up to fight**_

But she had everything to lose. Her friends and her students and the headmistress who had taken her under her wing, protected her for all of these years and understood that not knowing all of the pieces to Constance's past was something she would have to deal with. They were all under threat, and so she left the academy, walked one step at a time away from her home and into the darkness.

_**I might get used to giving up so I am showing up tonight**_

Not to show up tonight, meant weakness. And Constance Hardbroom was many things but weak wasn't one of them and the very thought of her getting used to giving in to forces that many deemed 'out of their control' nearly broke her spirit all together.

_**I am my own enemy, the battle fought within my mind**_

Of course some of those forces had come from within; she had fought against herself for so many years, trying to piece together a description of who she was. Usually she started with 'My name is Constance Hardbroom' but the rest wouldn't follow. There was something wrong about the other attributes she used to describe herself; they never seemed to fit her properly.

Finally she reached a fork in the road, the only one on her journey. She had to make a choice, left or right.

Constance held her hand out before her, feeling the tickle of cold snowflakes that fell from above and reminded her of her mother so many years ago. The very mother that lead her to Cackle's Academy, the one that she was now defying by leaving the safe haven of Castle Overblow and for what?

_**If I can overcome step 1**_

She closed her eyes for a moment to remind herself of why she was doing this but the answer soon became obvious. It was to protect the students and the staff. To protect all of them from what really was a fate worse than death. Her student's minds were so fragile, so naive in the intricacies of the world and she envied them. They were children up until the day they graduated and went to study whatever they wanted beyond the academy's doors, her childhood innocence had been lost years ago, the moment she was admitted into Broomhead Manor and treated like a training dummy, lucky to survive the brutality and make her escape.

But she needed to make a choice, and this time her mother's ghost did not appear, it didn't tell her which road to travel. The one that would lead her away from the castle and her tutor forever or the other that lead to her greatest challenge. Constance finally stepped forwards taking the path to her left.

_**I can face the 99**_

Step after step as the snow crunched beneath her feet and snowflakes landed gingerly atop her tightly wound bun. Her eyes fixed on the clearing up ahead and the single tree covered in the beautiful white ice standing before her and then, the cloaked figure at its base.

**One more,**

**Go one more,**

**Yeah, yeah,**

**Don't stop now**

She had to physically force each foot to move in front of the other, because the closer she got the more their magical existence pervaded her senses. The strong potent aura of dark magic oozed through the moonlight and struck her from all sides, the same magic that she had been taught by for what seemed the majority of her lifetime.

_**This is the mountain that I climb**_

Constance stopped, ten meters away from the woman who stood before her, hands entwined, back straight, a cloak around her shoulders but no witches' hat atop her head; though Constance had always suspected the woman of not actually being a witch at all but a kind of strange demon that lived on the torment of others.

"I see you decided to accept my invitation," her voice spoke, just lightly over the cool breeze that licked various snowflakes from their resting places and to a new location. "Are you ready to face reality?"

Constance nodded her head though sparks danced from her fingertips in anticipation. Hecketty Broomhead smirked before preparing her own magical devices. Teacher verses student, prodigy against mentor, the stakes had never been so high, for the fate of Cackle's Academy and indeed her own life rested in this one moment.

_**Got 100 steps to go**_

Constance took one step forwards, releasing a blast of her magic bright purple in hue that flew in her mentor's directions and so the real challenge had begun.

_**Tonight I'll make it 99**_

* * *

><p>AN: I originally intended this to be a one shot but if you want me to write a sequel song fic then let me know :) Thanks for reading!<p> 


End file.
